A Person for Me
by Arella Ashkenazic
Summary: (Chobits fanfic) Chapter 2: That burning question of love is still in my brain... can I possibly find the answer I seek?
1. Prologue

Prologue

Everything was black in the beginning. Everything. And not just black, but that inscrutable black, like being so far into a cave without light that you can _feel_ the darkness, feel the color of black. So black that you're in a womb, in some sense, but no warmth. No feeling. Just blackness.

And then there is light. Light so bright that it blinds you immediately. And then there is one face, and one face only… forever.

That's how it was with me in the beginning, anyway. I've never asked anyone else, and I don't think that anyone else would ever tell me. Probably because there is only one other person like me, and I have never met her. But I am going to. I am going to as soon as I can.

I remember that first second, that first instant when everything started, before my life lost all its meaning and I went on a mission to find new meaning and a new life. It all started with the "on switch", which is just how I described it earlier. Light, but light beyond what you would think light should be. I didn't know what it was at first, because it took me a minute to gain my senses. But the light… and the pleasure! The pleasure that you are coming out of the blackness and into the morning… the morning of your life as a slave.


	2. Chapter 1: Birth

Chapter 1:  Birth

I awoke from the darkness with a shudder.  As my eyes opened, the light blinded me, but I didn't notice.  The hand moved out from between my legs, and I moved up from the floor, naked as a newborn baby.  The light surrounded me, molded me, became part of me.  My short black hair flew out from my head, and I fell to my knees to stare at the man in front of me.

"Perfect!" He murmured, running a hand over my cheek.  "No, to check your system diagnostics and make sure that everything is working properly."

_System diagnostics? I thought to myself, just staring at him.  He was the most fantastic thing I'd ever seen in my life.  He was a large man, tall and wide, with a balding head and a graying beard.  He opened one of my ports and pulled the cord out of it, hooking it up to his computer.  I watched him curiously as he typed for a few moments.  Finally, he grinned happily.  "As I said: everything is perfect.  In first class working condition."_

I cocked my head at him curiously, and whispered, "Perfect?"

"Ah, her first word!  We must program something into you for starting.  It would be very confusing if I sold you and you didn't know what to say to your new master," he said, patting me affectionately on the head.

"Master?" I asked, cocking my head in the other direction.

"Of course.  You are a computer, a Chobit.  And I am your master.  That is how you will address me.  You must never say my name," he informed me, his affectionate look turning very stern and cold.

It frightened me, and I asked, "Name?"

"Ah, yes, I suppose I should name you.  Well, maybe not.  I must first decide if I am going to sell you or not.  For now, let us just find you some clothes and see how you work around the house."

"Clothes?  House?"

All of a sudden, I had a million questions burning inside me, threatening to burst.  And for some reason, I knew the answers to some of them already.  But the rest… like what colors were.  And feelings.  What was I feeling?  Emotions?  What were all these new and wonderful things?  Like light.  All I had ever known was darkness.

"Now, I must bring you to my patrons, so they may see how my work has turned out.  They wanted to see if Chobits could be created by other scientists, and if I had the genius to make one.  And, as far as I know, I do!"  He gloated happily, and I felt disgust rise in my belly.  But it was behind the awe and reverence I felt for him.  And love?  He was the one that had turned me on, the one who had… created me?

"Chobit?"

"Yes, indeed, my little creation.  A Chobit.  A computer that has a will of her own.  If I have succeeded, you will be one of the only ones in the world.  And you will be worth a fortune!"

All of a sudden the burning questions of emotion, touch, sight, and sound left me in a flurry, and were replaced by questions that I had to have an answer to.  What am I?  Why am I here?  What makes me different from you?  Do you love me?


	3. Chapter 2: Question

Chapter 2:  Question

He kept me in a room in the back of his laboratory, where he told me that I would be safe from robbers who might want to steal me.  I didn't understand what he meant, but I didn't question him either.  There was still a lot I needed to know.  He seemed to understand this.

Pointing to the television in the corner of the otherwise bare room, he told me that I could watch it to be entertained and to learn.  I just nodded and said, "Yes, master."

After he left, I turned on the television, and pulled the wire that he had installed inside my ear.  I plugged it in to the only port hole available.  I wasn't sure how I knew to do this, but I did.

I didn't even have to watch the television.  After I plugged in, I sucked in the information from every channel at the same time.  There was an initial shock and information began to flood through my system, and I fell backwards onto the floor.  I lay there for hours, until the master came to get me, and by that time, I had learned to determine what information was true and what information was false.  And how I could use true and false information.

One of the things I learned was what I am.  A computer that is not considered human.  But why wasn't I considered human?  Couldn't I think and feel like everyone else?  This seemed to be the constant debate all over the news stations in Japan.

After all that, though, my search for knowledge could not be quenched.  And I still had that burning question inside me.  _Do you love me?_

My master returned a few hours later, and I smiled up at him radiantly.  "Hello, Master.  I have learned much."

"I'm sure you have," he agreed, unplugging me from the television.  "And now it is time for you to learn more about the real world.  I have found a buyer for you, and he is willing to offer me more money than all my research cost for even creating you.  You are a very lucky girl."

I stared at him uncomprehendingly.  How could he just sell me to some unknown man?  He had answered my question.  He did not love me.  He could not love me.  I decided right then and there that humans were incapable of the emotion love.


End file.
